NASA celebrates Apollo's 40th Anniversary to Moon

William Atkins
Friday, 27 March 2009 20:44

Science - Space

The three Apollo 9 astronauts that were launched on March 3, 1969, were mission commander James “Jim” McDivitt, command module pilot David “Dave” Scott, and lunar module pilot Russell “Rusty” Schweickart.

During their ten days orbiting in low-Earth orbit the three astronauts checked out many key aspects, such as navigation, EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk), rendezvous and docking, life support (using first-time self-contained spacesuits), engines, that were critical to a future landing on the Moon.

The Apollo 9 team showed NASA that the Apollo spacecraft were all able to rendezvous and dock, which was critical for a successful mission to the Moon.

Check out historic Apollo 9 video clips on NASA's Human Spaceflight website.

Other videos show up on the Discovery Channel's website "Classic NASA film: Apollo 9."

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov.

As humans prepare to return to the Moon, NASA looks back to its first Moon landing on July 20, 1969. It's taken awhile but humans should be back on the Moon by the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11.

Hopefully, it will be an international team of astronauts that come to the Moon "... in Peace For All Mankind."

For more information on the plaque that was left on the Moon, read the BBC 'On This Day' article "1969: Man takes first steps on the Moon." [plaque, not plague, (oops): thanks for the word correction from the reader].